Animals Lament – The Prophet Denounces!

The voice of the heart,
the eternal truth, the eternal law of God,
given by the prophetess of God for our time

The fundamental issues of our time -
to think about and to serve in self-recognition

»The Prophet« No. 15

Animals Lament – The Prophet Denounces!

Two Cosmic Gods,
the God of Moses and
the God of Jesus,
or One Changeable God?

From the day that your fathers came
out of the land of Egypt to this day,
I have persistently sent all my servants,
the prophets, to them, day after day;
yet they did not listen to me,
or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck.
They did worse than their fathers.
(Jer: 7:22-26)

„For I, the Lord, do not change …"
(Mal. 3:6)

„The life in God includes not only one’s neighbor,
but also all other forms of life like animals, plants,
minerals and stones; for all Being bears the life, God."
(This is My Word, p.788 )

Table of Contents

Preface

God’s Word the Day before Yesterday, Yesterday and Today –
Truth or Not? God Rehabilitates Moses Through Further Prophets

Church Teachings: A Dead End

"You shall ..." – God Respects the Free Will of His Children

Jesus of Nazareth Spoke Up for the Animals.
Testimonies from "This Is My Word"

The Spirit of the Books of Moses Blows in the Churches Today.
Parallels to the Bloody Rituals of Voodoo Witchcraft

Jesus Was Opposed to All Forms of Bloodshed

"... shall be cut off." The Deadening of the Conscience. Or:
How to Become Servile to the Priest’s Power

Ceremonial Sacrifices "as the Lord commanded Moses."
In the Old Testament the Causal Law Was Known.
Jesus Was Against Animal Sacrifice

The New Testament "fulfills" the Old and "sheds light" on It.
Both Are the "true word of God." Millions of Victims of the Church

Martin Luther – Life and Teaching in the Christian Spirit
of Love for Neighbor?

What a Person Does to Another, He Does to Himself."
What does the Animal Feel in Its Situation?
The Animal, a Basic Commodity and Consumer Good

The God of the Times. "Fulfillment" of the Old Testament in Our Time:
Sexual Child Abuse by Priests. In the Footsteps of the Nazarene
or in Those of the Church Authorities?

"Kill" or "Murder?" Jesus Fulfilled the Law and Deepened the Teaching

Instructions on Violence and War in the Old Testament –
Jesus: "Love your enemies." Jesus Rebukes the Hypocrisy
of the Scribes and Pharisees

Pomp and Ceremony in Ordaining and Clothing
Priests in the Books of Moses

The Sacrifice of Redemption that Jesus Brought. The "Scapegoat"

The First Early Christians Knew No Ceremonies

Paul Overset the Living Original Christianity, Falsified the
Teachings of Jesus and Laid the Foundation for a State Religion
and Externalized Church of Rituals

Constantine: Collaboration of Church and State. A Further
Departure from the Teachings of Jesus – The State Church,
an External Religion of Power.

The Holy Scripture – Old Testament and New Testament –
"Inspired by the Holy Spirit"

"For I the Lord do not change ... " Divine Words
Against Animal Sacrifice Through the Prophet Moses

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
"God has given man dominion over the animals ..."

Use of Animals – But "not divorced from respect
for moral imperatives." "You should not love animals"

The Status of Animals in the Protestant-Lutheran Faith
"Lamb of God" – The Butcher, a Secularized Priest?

Eating Meat – God’s Concession to Human Weakness?
Did Jesus Eat Meat?

Statements About Animals in the Protestant-Lutheran Catechism

Jesus of Nazareth on the Subject of "Animals"
in the Christ-Revelation "This Is My Word"

Animals Lament – The Prophet Denounces

This Is Cruel Man

Preface

Anyone who reads the title of this new edition of "The Prophet" will probably ask: What does the question "Two gods or one changeable God?" have to do with what the animals must endure in our time? Are not both aspects of the subject on entirely different levels?

But anyone who goes after the causes of the suffering of animals – which are disdained, enslaved, reduced to a basic commodity and consumer good – will certainly come upon roots that lie in the religious practices of ancient times, of the Old Testament. The term "religious practices" already gives us pause, for religion is the sphere of communication with God and the divine. That this contact was aspired to or achieved by those responsible for the "practices" of ancient times must be put into question.

In what you will read on the following pages, not only the prophet speaks (although there is no dialogue with a contemporary this time), but many facts speak as well: many testimonies in word and image. They speak to us – and may the one who has ears to hear, listen! They will give us much to think about, and whoever uses his mind, for him a light may turn on. They will put questions to us, and whoever has a heart that still feels will sense the message. What lessons we draw from this and whether we reach a decision that is followed by action is up to each one of us.

God’s Word the Day before Yesterday,
Yesterday and Today –
Truth or Not? God Rehabilitates Moses
Through Further Prophets

2000 years have passed since Jesus of Nazareth. The Son of God came to us as a human being, as the Son of Man, to bring us the message of God, His Father, who is also our Father. The message that Jesus brought us from God, His and our Father, is love.

The path to love begins with the reconciliation among people and between people and animals and Earth. This is the only path for man to find unity with God and His entire creation, including the All, the cosmos.

God is the love. And so, His infinite being is love. Jesus spoke to the people that His Father and He, Jesus, the Christ, are one. Jesus wanted to tell the people that His words are the truth which comes from heaven, from God, His Father, who is also the Father of all people. Jesus did not distance Himself from the people, instead regarding them as equals, sons and daughters of God. He said: You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt. 5:48). And He gave us the prayer which begins with the address: Our Father, who art in heaven … or, Our Father in Heaven …

Jesus gave us, among others, the following important pointer, which is also handed down in the Bible: Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Mt. 5:17-19)

In these words, Jesus spoke of the eternal law, and therefore of the eternal, unchangeable God. He unequivocally expressed that the prophets sent by God spoke truly, that in the prophetic word they proclaimed the truth that is God.

Comparing the Books of Moses in the Old Testament with the teachings of Jesus very quickly raises the question: Did Jesus speak the truth – also when He said that He would fulfill the words of the prophets? Or is the truth found in what can be read in the "Books of Moses?" And what about the prophets who came after Moses? Their statements differ in content in many instances from the words of Moses handed down to us; at times they contradict them. Or, do several different gods speak through the prophets of the Old Testament? And Jesus taught us about another God, different from the "God" who, for instance, spoke through "Moses."

Anyone who thinks that the "Christian" churches have a convincing answer and that they can help him overcome confusion and uncertainty in order to reach clarity and sureness will be disappointed: The churches essentially explain that every word in the Bible is the truth of God. This means that God’s words through Moses are recorded authentically in the Bible. According to this reasoning, "God" commanded us, among other things, to kill animals in bloody, cruel sacrificial offerings and to present them to Him. Certain people, the priests, were supposedly selected by Him, the Lord, to perform the sacrifices in minutely prescribed rituals, "as Moses was commanded by the Lord."

If we were following church teachings, this would be the truth.
But what about the other Old Testament prophets – Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many others – through whom God spoke against burnt offerings, sacrifices, and the like? Jesus, the greatest prophet of all times, also spoke against the statements and instructions that God supposedly gave through the prophet Moses.The contradictions in these different "statements of God" are clearly apparent. But church teaching still insists that both are the truth?

Let us take a look at the different images of God:
Jesus taught us about the God of the Ten Commandments, who is a kind, wise God, a God of love and reconciliation, a Creator who is for the life of animals, yes, for all of nature.
The "God" of the Books of Moses by comparison is a hard, cruel and brutal God, who inflicts heavy punishment upon people, even punishment by death, above all who sees to it that the animals are tortured and butchered in bestial ways, in order to then be appeased by the smoke rising from the burnt offerings. Did the "God" of the "Books of Moses" in the Old Testament with His instructions on cruel practices ignore the God of the Ten Commandments?
Time and again the question is put to us: Is the God of the Old Testament – above all the God of the "Books of Moses"– another God than the God of the New Testament? If it is indeed one and the same God then either the Old Testament – particularly the "Books of Moses" – must have been falsified, or Jesus did not speak the truth. Or is God perhaps changeable?

Issue No. 13 of The Prophet (April 1998), a dialogue between the prophet and experts on Catholic and Protestant theology, has already explored this question. But the question is raised again here with a particular view to animal sacrifices.

The first Original Christians were not burdened by such questions. To them it was clear that the word, the teachings, the message and life of God’s Son, Jesus, the Christ, is the authentic word of God and the authentic will of God for people and souls and therefore, the measure for all that had been and would be presented as God’s word at other times and other places.
Today, we would have no reason to ponder the question "God’s word yesterday and today – truth or not?" – in fact, there would be no need for God to send another teaching prophet to Earth – if, yes, if, original Christianity had been able to sustain its orientation toward Jesus, the Christ. But it was not able to sustain this orientation for long and the result is that the demon in what has been attributed to Moses, although corrected by Jesus in many respects, is still effective today in a deeper and more "global" way than many realize. But, what a person is not aware of can influence and control him.

God is love, kindness and gentleness. He does not need to be placated by cruel pagan customs.
But how then did it come to the false statements and instructions in the Books of Moses? Who had an interest in falsely attributing to Moses, for example, the orders for bloodthirsty pagan practices? God Himself gives the answer; much later He spoke through the prophet Jeremiah:

For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’
But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day; yet they did not listen to me, or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.
So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord, their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips ...’ (Jer. 7:22-28)
Thus, through Jeremiah, God exposed the falsification of the "Books of Moses" and with this, the prophet Moses was rehabilitated.
Moses is also being rehabilitated in our time, on the one hand by modern Biblical research, which has proven that God’s word through the mouth of Moses is not authentic as read in the Old Testament, and that instead, the text was much more deliberately altered and "edited"; the researchers agree in attributing to the priests large parts of the Bible’s handed-down "final version."
But that is not the only point that speaks in favor of Moses. The highest "authority," the primordial intelligence, all-wisdom and justice, the Spirit of the Christ of God through His prophetess of this time, gives clear testimony in Moses’ favor in the great work of revelation: "This Is My Word. Alpha and Omega. The Gospel of Jesus, The Christ-Revelation which the world does not know." Among other things, the following is written there:
Moses neither ordered nor condoned the sacrifice of animals. However, he did not interfere in the satanic will of those who wanted to eat meat. He taught and instructed them that the consumption as well as the sacrificing of animals is sin. But since the stubborn Israelites insisted on doing it, Moses had to be silent; for the Israelites, too, were children of God and had their free will. They saw everything only through their sin and for this reason, considered the silence of Moses as approval. (p. 581)

The Spirit of God confirms several times in His mighty revelation that Moses was a faithful servant of God who faithfully gave the word of God to the people of his time. God thus again rehabilitates Moses.
Those who read God’s words in Jeremiah with the heart will be convinced that the "Books of Moses" must be the books of the caste of priests at that time, who ascribed their ideas, their cruel, murderous, pagan cults to the teachings of the prophet Moses. Apparently, the priests wanted to continue to practice what was common to the pagan religions of that time and what the Israelites had brought with them from earlier times before their enslavement in Egypt.

Church Teachings:
A Dead End

The question in the title of this edition of The Prophet, "Two Cosmic Gods, the God of Moses and the God of Jesus, or One Changeable God?" clearly states: For I, the Lord, do not change … (Mal. 3:6)
From what has been said it follows that the Church’s statement, that the Bible is in all its parts the direct, true word of God, must be wrong.
In the following extensive exposition the light of truth now shines – as if through the varying facets of a cut and polished crystal. It shines into the impenetrable mixture of truth and lies, which produces confusion in many heads, and, in countless hearts, triggers hopelessness, despair and a sense of being lost. This impenetrable mixture was also the decisive influence in a development that culminated in the mechanism of pressure and deceit that calls itself the "Christian Church."

... the truth will make you free (Jn. 8:32), said Jesus of Nazareth. God’s word has always been the light of truth, which He gave to people through light-messengers of heaven, so that they could become free of their burdens, free from internal or external servitude, from bindings and coercion. Since always, the opponent of God has been the enemy of the truth and of the good. He was and is trying to darken the light. To this end he did and does use any means, and the abuse of the name of God and of Jesus, the Christ, proved to be one of the most cunning means – today, we would say the most psychologically effective means – to poison the hearts of believing, God-fearing people, to bind their souls and to render them vulnerable to lies and deceit, to the non-divine.

"You shall …" –
God Respects the Free Will of His Children

God, the truth and the light, is unchangeable. Jesus, the Christ, taught this time and again. In the Ten Commandments, which God gave to the people through the prophet Moses, we also experience the God that Jesus, the Christ, showed us, and who said nothing of all those things supposedly commanded by the "God" in the "Books of Moses."
In the Ten Commandments, God leaves everybody free to keep His commandments, or not. God forces no one. God says: "You shall." In the "Books of Moses," on the other hand, the "Old Testament God" gives mandatory instructions; He does not respect His children’s free will. In the Ten Commandments, God teaches us people neither cruelty nor killing, neither the murder of human beings nor the slaughter of animals. Had God, the Eternal, commanded all the things contained in the so-called "Books of Moses," He would have sinned against His own commandments, and He would consequently be a sinful God.
Many people might object and say that killing is permitted, only murder is not, because "You shall not kill," according to the latest theological thought, means "You shall not murder." (The Ten Commandments were changed accordingly in the 1985 edition of the German New Jerusalem Bible. But if this were true, Jesus would have given the wrong advice to a young man who asked him: Master, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?
Jesus told the young man in the same edition of the Bible: Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments. He then asked him, Which ones? And Jesus answered: You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Mt. 19:17-19)
Jesus said: "Keep the commandments" and admonished the young person: "You shall not kill." Jesus did not say: "You shall not murder." He also did not say: "You shall only kill under exceptional circumstances."

Jesus of Nazareth Spoke Up for the Animals.
Testimonies from "This Is My Word"

Jesus made no distinction between human beings and animals; for the commandment said and still says today: You shall not kill. It is a general statement which means: We should kill neither human beings nor animals.
In This Is My Word we read among other things what Christ said and made clear to the people during His time on Earth, also regarding the treatment of animals.
As Jesus of Nazareth, I spoke to many people about the law of life as well as about the animals which, like human beings, feel pain, grief and joy. Just as man should not be against, but for his neighbor, so should he also be for the animals and bear responsibility for them, because they serve man.
I taught people again and again that the animals, too, are creatures of God, which man should not disdain, but should love. The one who beats and tortures them will one day experience the same or similar thing on his soul and on his body. For, what a person does to his fellow men and to his fellow creatures, the animals, he does to himself. (p. 421)
The Bible reports that during the "feeding of the five thousand," Jesus gave the assembled people bread and also fish. According to Mark we read: And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. (Mk. 6:41)
Some may ask, "Are fish not also animals?" In This Is My Word we read what really happened:
My disciples brought Me bread and grapes to be multiplied. On that day, dead fish were also offered to Me in order to be multiplied. As I took this dead substance into My hands, I explained to the people that the power-potential of the Father, the high power of life, was gone from it for the most part and that I would not create live fish so that they be killed again.
I explained to the people that life is in all life forms and that man should not kill them deliberately. The people, especially the children, looked at Me very sadly. They could not understand Me, because they lived from fish, bread and little else, for the most part. And then I spoke to them in the following sense: The energies of the earth are still maintaining the dead fish. And so I will not give you living fish from the Spirit of the Father; but from the energy of the earth, I will create for you fish that are dead, that is, poor in vibration. They will never bear life and cannot be killed. I will show you how living things taste – bread and fruits – and in comparison with them, the taste of dead food.
And from the energies of the earth, I created for them fish which bore little spirit substance. I gave them the dead fish and, at the same time, I offered them bread and fruits to eat, so that they could recognize the difference between living and dead nourishment, between high-vibrating and low-vibrating food. In this and similar ways, I taught the people. (pp. 371-372)
We can see how carefully, understandingly and sympathetically Jesus approached His fellow man and how He brought the laws of God to life for them in specific situations.
In This Is My Word Christ also gives us the following pointers:
The one who loves his neighbor selflessly will neither do violence to him, nor kill him. And the one who loves his neighbor selflessly will not deliberately kill animals either. The one who respects man and animal has no warlike designs, because he respects the laws of God to which belong the laws of nature, too. The one who strives to actualize the laws of God will refrain from eating meat more and more and will gratefully accept the gifts of the earth, that is, that food which comes from God for His human children. (p. 467)
As Jesus, Christ spoke up for the animals wherever He could. It is not surprising that little can be found about this in the Bible, since it was not in the interest of the clergy that came after Christ to teach the people in the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, but to teach them only according to their spirit, to the church institution striving for earthly all-power. Therefore, the aspect "animals" was not included in the New Testament of the "Holy Scriptures," nor was Jesus’ commandment to abstain from eating meat.
Let us read on in This Is My Word how Jesus reacted to the suffering of animals.
1. And it came to pass that the Lord departed from the city and went into the mountains with His disciples. And they came to a mountain with very steep paths. There they met a man with a beast of burden.
2. But the horse had collapsed, for it was overladen. The man struck it till the blood flowed. And Jesus went to him saying, "You son of cruelty, why do you strike your animal? Do you not see that it is much too weak for its burden and do you not know that it suffers?"
3. But the man retorted, "What have You to do therewith? I may strike my animal as much as it pleases me, for it belongs to me; and I bought it with a goodly sum of money. Ask those who are with You, for they are from my neighborhood and know thereof."
4. And some of the disciples answered, saying, "Yes, Lord, it is as he said, we were there when he bought the horse." And the Lord rejoined, "Do you not see then how it is bleeding, and do you not hear how it wails and laments?" But they answered saying, "No, Lord, we do not hear that it wails or laments."
5. And the Lord became sad and said, "Woe to you; because of the dullness of your hearts, you do not hear how it laments and cries to its heavenly Creator for pity; but thrice woe to the one against whom it cries and wails in its torment!"
6. And He went forward and touched the horse, and the animal stood up, and its wounds were healed. But He said to the man, "Go on your way now and henceforth strike it no more, if you, too, hope to find mercy." (pp. 200-206)
Jesus not only carried people and animals in His great heart, but all of nature as well. He was linked to all the forms of creation, including the celestial bodies and elemental forces. It is told that He commanded the storm and that the water carried Him, so that He could walk upon it. As He taught His brothers and sisters then, He teaches us today, for example in This Is My Word:
Respect, cherish and honor the creative power in all Being! Behold: In the innermost part of his soul, every person bears all that is power and light. The spiritual body in the human being is the substance of all Being, because God, the eternal Father, has given every single one of His children everything as essence, as heritage. The eternal Spirit is in all forms of life, and it also streams from all life forms.
When the person has consciously become the child of God, the omnipotence of God serves him through all life forms, through stone, wood, fire and water, through flowers, grasses, plants and animals. All stars serve the one who lives in Me, the Spirit of truth. When the Creator-power is able to permeate the created one, because his soul is full of light and power, then he is again consciously the child, the son or daughter of infinity and has once again taken up his heritage, the All-power.
Each earthly day is a gift to man, so that he may recognize and find himself in it. The nature kingdoms offer themselves to man. Fire and water serve him, and the heavenly bodies, too, by day and by night. Realize how rich the day is for each individual! (pp. 177-178)
Before turning to the texts from the Books of Moses, one more occurrence from the life of Jesus of Nazareth, reported in This Is My Word:
1. And as Jesus was going to Jericho, He met a man with young doves and a cage full of birds which he had caught. And He saw their misery, as they had lost their freedom and, furthermore, were suffering hunger and thirst.
2. And He said to the man, "What are you doing with these?" And the man answered, "I earn my living by selling the birds which I have caught."
3. And Jesus said to him, "What would you think, if someone stronger or more clever than you would capture and shackle you, or would throw your wife or your children and you into prison, in order to sell you for his own profit and to earn his living from this?
4. Are these not your fellow creatures, only weaker than you? And does not the same God, Father and Mother, care for them as for you? Let these, your little brothers and sisters, go forth into freedom and see to it that you never do such a thing again, but that you earn your bread honestly."
5. And the man was astounded at these words and His authority, and he let the birds go free. As the birds came out, they flew to Jesus, sat upon His shoulders and sang to Him. And the man asked more about His teachings and he went his way and learned basket weaving. He earned his bread from this work and broke his cages and traps and became a disciple of Jesus. (pp. 485-486)

The Spirit of the Books of Moses Blows
in the Churches Today. Parallels to the
Bloody Rituals of Voodoo Witchcraft

Jesus came, as He said, to fulfill God’s law. He did this through His life and work. And He taught how the law of the heavens is to be fulfilled in the individual steps of our everyday lives; the most important testimony of this that has been handed down is His Sermon on the Mount.
Before turning to the question of how it came to be that the true Christian path, the path of following Jesus, was not taken by many so-called Christians, we will go back one more time to the Books of Moses. The teachings and instructions as well as the social-religious system of government that were laid down in these books continued in effect until the Christ in Jesus came to Earth, despite the fact that God time and again sent His messengers, the prophets, to enlighten the people and to move them toward the true faith and life. The resulting blindness and burdening of the people was one of the main reasons why Jesus was not accepted and received by His contemporaries and had to take the path via Golgotha. And even after His physical death, contrary currents soon crept in among the first early Christians and eventually prevailed.
The new Christianity, which may well have taken its name from Christ, but was not with Christ, now took on a different form from the social-religious life described in the Books of Moses. But what about the roots? These always bear fruit of the same kind, of the same content. And Jesus said: "By their fruits you will recognize them."
We can deduce from the following quote out of the third Book of Moses, Leviticus, what spirit moved in the ceremonies that are described in the Books of Moses:
If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it at the door of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord; and Aaron’s sons the priests shall present the blood, and throw the blood round about against the altar that is at the door of the tent of meeting. And he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces.
The sons of the priest Aaron shall put fire on the altar and lay wood in order upon the fire. And Aaron’s sons the priests shall lay the pieces, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire upon the altar. But its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn the whole on the altar, as a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord.
If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or goats, he shall offer a male without blemish; and he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall throw its blood against the altar round about. And he shall cut it into pieces, with its head and its fat, and the priest shall lay them in order upon the wood that is on the fire upon the altar; but the entrails and the legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer the whole, and burn it on the altar; it is a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord.
If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or of young pigeons. And the priest shall bring it to the altar and wring off its head, and burn it on the altar; and its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. And he shall take away its crop with the feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east side, in the place for ashes; he shall tear it by its wings, but shall not divide it asunder. And the priest shall burn it on the altar, upon the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord. (Lev. 1:3-17)
A pleasing odor to the Lord." Why is it necessary to appease the Lord with this so-called "pleasing odor," which certainly was no pleasant odor but rather a stench? According to the teachings of Jesus, God is love, reconciliation, compassion and kindness, the equanimity. Why, then, does He need to be appeased? Wild animals – which we sometimes call beasts – are appeased or lured into a trap using chunks of meat. Did people think, or did they wish to give the impression, that God, the Absolute, All-Eternal One, could be manipulated, as we men often may be manipulated or as we often intend to manipulate others? Such an attempt would bear witness to the distance from God.
God has no weakness. He cannot be manipulated.
The third book of Moses, Leviticus, continues:
When anyone brings a cereal offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour; he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense on it, and bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests. And he shall take from it a handful of the fine flour and oil, with all of its frankincense; and the priest shall burn this as its memorial portion upon the altar, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord.
And what is left of the cereal offering shall be for Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings by fire to the Lord. (Lev. 2:1-3)
The rest of the cereal offering, belonging to Aaron and his sons, would certainly have been the best part. Is it any different today? The poor today eat the bread crumbs that fall from the tables of the rich, among whom the Church dignitaries may be counted.
The "holy," even the "most holy" part is the priests’ due. Did God grant them their office – through Moses, for example? They granted to themselves the dignity of "holy ones" and at that, even on a hereditary basis, regardless of the individual’s "worthiness."
Leviticus continues:
If a man’s offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering and kill it at the door of the tent of meeting; and Aaron’s sons the priests shall throw the blood against the altar round about. And from the sacrifice of the peace offering, and as an offering by fire to the Lord, he shall offer the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the appendage of the liver which he shall take away with the kidneys. Then Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt offering, which is upon the wood on the fire. It is an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord.
If his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord is an animal from the flock, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish. If he offers a lamb for his offering, then he shall offer it before the Lord, laying his hand upon the head of his offering and killing it before the tent of meeting; and Aaron’s sons shall throw its blood against the altar round about. Then from the sacrifice of the peace offering as an offering by fire to the Lord, he shall offer its fat, the fat tail entire, taking it away close by the backbone, and the fat that covers the entrails, and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the appendage of the liver which he shall take away with the kidneys. And the priest shall burn it on the altar as food offered by fire to the Lord.
If his offering is a goat, then he shall offer it before the Lord, and lay his hand upon its head, and kill it before the tent of meeting; and the sons of Aaron shall throw its blood against the altar round about. (Lev. 3:1-13)
Reading such and similar instructions for bloody ceremonies of magical character, one is automatically reminded of voodoo witchcraft. The "Duden" (a German dictionary) defines voodoo in the following way: a secret cult practiced on Haiti, originating in West Africa, that is magical-religious, syncretistic, and incorporates elements of Catholicism. In "Meyers Lexicon" (a German encyclopedia) it says: Name of syncretistic secret cult common in Haiti, in which ecstatic dances – thought to permit the identification of cult participants with deities – play a central role. Funk and Wagnalls New Comprehensive International Dictionary has the following definition: A primitive religion of West African origin, found among Haitian and West Indian Negroes and the Negroes of southern United States, characterized by belief in sorcery and the use of charms, fetishes, witchcraft, etc.
If voodoo witchcraft incorporates elements of Catholicism, this "enrichment" would surely not have come about by chance. Perhaps the law of attraction of likes was at work here? Then everyone who tithes at church has reason to wonder what he is paying for.
In Leviticus we read:
But the skin of the bull and all its flesh, with its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung, the whole bull he shall carry forth outside the camp to a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and shall burn it on a fire of wood; where the ashes are poured out it shall be burned. (Lev. 4:11-12)
Here we are told what a "clean place" is! Anyone who wants to read further tales of horror about the darkest pagan tradition may consider the following:
If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity. Or if any one touches an unclean thing, whether the carcass of an unclean beast or a carcass of unclean cattle or a carcass of unclean swarming things, and it is hidden from him, and he has become unclean, he shall be guilty. Or if he touches human uncleanness, of whatever sort the uncleanness may be with which one becomes unclean, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it he shall be guilty. Or if any one utters with his lips a rash oath to do evil or to do good, any sort of rash oath that men swear, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it he shall in any of these be guilty. When a man is guilty in any of these, he shall confess the sins he has committed, and he shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord for the sins which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin.
But if he cannot afford a lamb, then he shall bring, as his guilt offering to the Lord for the sin which he has committed; two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. He shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer first the one for the sin offering; he shall wring its head from its neck, but shall not sever it, and he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar, while the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar … (Lev. 5:1-9)

Jesus was Opposed
to All Forms of Bloodshed

Jesus would never have shed blood or condoned bloodshed. The sentence All who take the sword will perish by the sword (Mt. 26:52) also refers to transgressions against the animal world and all of nature, and is not confined to killing with a sword. There are many gradations to the lack of love. Animals have very fine sensations, while the emotions of humans are often crude and dull.
Nothing and no one can "absolve us of a transgression" except our Redeemer, Christ, whose power and light of redemption dwells in each of us. The prerequisite for Him to redeem our soul from a guilt is the following: With all our heart, we must feel remorseful for our unloving feeling, sensing, thinking, speaking and acting. In our inner being, we must ask our neighbor and second neighbor, against whom we have sinned, for forgiveness and, for our part, forgive what he might have done to us. To the best of our ability, we must make amends for the wrong we have done, if still possible. And what we have recognized as not good in us we must not do again. Only then will God forgive us, as we have been praying for the last 2000 years in the Lord’s Prayer: Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors …
Not only an animal sacrifice, but everything that emanates from us, visibly or invisibly – be it malice, disdain or disrespect, be it cruelty or even lack of understanding, inconsiderateness or callousness – adds more to our existing debt. This applies to humanity and to each individual.
Christ is opposed to all forms of bloodshed. When Christ, who again reveals Himself to humanity through the prophetic word, speaks about animal sacrifice, but also about animal experiments and other transgressions of science against God’s all-wise creation, He often uses the word "abomination."
We human beings should regard the animals, our second neighbors, as our little animal brothers and sisters. Although, unlike Fall-beings, they did not become guilty before God, the law, they went along into the depths so that we human beings could rejoice in the life of nature and be linked with it in love. Nature wants to serve man. It does not want to be tormented, tortured and murdered and then served up for cannibalistic meals.
The human being, in his inner being, a being from God, often proves to be a creature of cruelty.

" … shall be cut off."
The Deadening of the Conscience. Or:
How to Become Servile to the Priest’s Power

In the following passage as well, the "God" of the "Books of Moses" speaks against the teachings of Jesus and His own commandments. For instance, it is written in Leviticus:
And if any one touches an unclean thing, whether the uncleanness of man or an unclean beast or any unclean abomination, and then eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of the Lord’s peace offerings, that person shall be cut off from his people. (Lev. 7:21)
The fat of an animal that dies of itself, and the fat of one that is torn by beasts, may be put to any other use, but on no account shall you eat it. For every person who eats of the fat of an animal of which an offering by fire is made to the Lord shall be cut off from his people. (Lev. 7:24-25)
"Cut off from his people" most probably means stoning, the usual form of capital punishment of that time. Stoning was common in Israel even in the days of Jesus of Nazareth. Consider only the adulterous woman that Jesus saved from stoning at the last minute. Jesus’ contemporaries also wanted to kill Him at times in the application of the "laws of God through Moses." "But He passed through the crowd and went away."
In the third Book of Moses, Leviticus, chapter 11, it is laid out in detail which animals are to be considered clean and which are to be considered unclean. There, it says that the consumption of unclean flesh will cause the person to be unclean until the evening of that day.
Today, even people who consider themselves animal lovers often will eat meat. They apparently do not realize that, for example, the veal cutlet they buy from the butcher, already conveniently cut and ready for frying, perhaps even seasoned, comes from a little calf which only a few days ago grazed peacefully and harmoniously on the meadow. Perhaps the calf let itself be petted by the children of those who now ask for veal at the butcher’s. The children gazed into its large, dark eyes fringed with long eyelashes and were delighted. Rarely does anyone consider what the little animal, which did no one harm, had to suffer before it arrived at the store counter as a cutlet or sausage – the fright, the fear, the horror, the panic, the pain, the dismay.
The animal lovers, we human beings, keep pets which bring us joy, especially if they adapt easily, if they are "easy to care for." And yet many animals are abandoned during vacation season. For instance, in Germany in 1990 alone, half a million animals, mainly cats and dogs, were abandoned. Today, ten years later, the number is probably not less. Is that loving an animal?
From the divine world it was revealed to us:
Be … earnest and straightforward in your treatment of your second neighbors. In their sensations they see you as their big light-brother or light-sister … Therefore, respect your animal brothers and sisters, your second neighbors, because they want to be your true friends. Strive to treat them as you like to be treated. Then you will soon learn to understand them, and they will be in positive communication with you. (Life with Our Animal Brothers and Sisters. You, the Animal – You, the Human Being. Who Has Higher Values? p.114)
Man’s power to feel is dulled and his conscience is hardly active anymore. But that does not apply only to the people of today.
The conscience of man watches over good and evil, over justice and injustice. If it is sound, the conscience will react independently of external legal views, ultimately according to the Ten Commandments. But the habits of people and the imprinting by their environment have also affected and shaped their conscience.
In reading about cruel animal sacrifices and the stoning of people, we should not only think about how the animals will have felt.
In order to call to mind what may have taken place in a person back then, we could consider the following scenario: Two young men from among the people had eaten hare’s meat. They had caught a hare and roasted it for their meal. According to chapter 10 and 11 in Leviticus they were now unclean until the evening, which they were prepared to accept. But when, out of thoughtlessness or high-spiritedness, the friends entered the place where the "holy" offerings were kept, one of them was seen and was condemned to death by stoning. The other one remained undiscovered. The stoning was carried out, for in Leviticus 22 it says:
And the Lord said to Moses: Tell Aaron and his sons to keep away from the holy things of the people of Israel, which they dedicate to me, so that they may not profane my holy name. I am the Lord. Say to them: If anyone of all your descendants throughout your generations approaches the holy things, which the people of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord. (Lev. 22:1-2)
Let us put ourselves in the place of the surviving young man after his friend was stoned to death. He is tormented by feelings of guilt. He rebels against the judgment and the heavy punishment that should have been his as well. He revolts against the priests who handed down the sentence and yet he must tell himself that they carried out what "God commanded Moses." Thus his rebellion is directed against God who laid down such a merciless law. But then he calls to mind that God is considered "just," and that He is the highest judge, who cannot err. The young man begins to doubt himself. His observations tell him that apparently no one else has qualms about stoning. He concludes that something must be wrong with his own feelings and sense of justice, because both the priests ordained by God and his fellow believers in the tribe feel and think differently than he does. He decides to change his thinking and to strictly follow the priests and fellow men in all things of the future, instead of thinking independently and deciding freely. He will no longer seek the measure of his actions in himself, but will, even when his heart says differently, do as the others do because "it is God’s will."
A process of adaptation takes place. This person’s character changes. He now no longer lives himself, so to speak. His heart grows cold and his feelings blunt and dull, his nature hard. His image of God grows distorted and dark. He can no longer trust this punishing and angry God, let alone love Him. His prayers become untruthful and finally he is grateful that there are formulated prayers that can simply be repeated …
After some time, the reversal into a conformist, a vassal, into an obedient follower of the priests and of "tradition" is complete. This person no longer trusts his inner gauge, his conscience, but habitually thinks and acts against his knowing better. Now, he can be relied upon – upon his following, his loyalty, his obedience and his conformity.
This is how it could have happened back then. At least in principle this is what could have occurred. On the other hand, it is practically unlikely that a person could have reached adulthood without already being filled with the contents of traditional religious practices, blood sacrifices of animals and the stoning of people.
This just described inner condition of a person has occurred countless times and in many variations over the course of history. Does it not seem familiar somehow?
Consider, for instance, the Middle Ages in Europe, where the Inquisition caused many similar situations and conflicts of conscience. The priests no longer slaughtered the animals themselves – they had others do so, and still do today. They did not set fire to the pyre themselves on which straightforward and upright people were burned who had risen against the lies and answered for the one, true, merciful and kind God who is the truth. The priests "merely" stood there with their raised crosses, "blessed," and sang praises in honor of God, forgiving sins and granting indulgences to those who had gathered the wood for the pyre …

Ceremonial Sacrifices
"as the Lord commanded Moses."
In the Old Testament the Causal Law Was Known.
Jesus Was Against Animal Sacrifice

Back to the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament. Anyone wishing to read more about magic of the voodoo sort can continue to read in Leviticus:
Then he presented the ram of the burnt offering; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. And Moses killed it, and threw the blood upon the altar round about. And when the ram was cut into pieces, Moses burned the head and the pieces and the fat. And when the entrails and the legs were washed with water, Moses burned the whole ram on the altar, as a burnt offering, a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Then he presented the other ram, the ram of ordination; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. And Moses killed it, and took some of its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot. And Aaron’s sons were brought, and Moses put some of the blood on the tips of their right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet; and Moses threw the blood upon the altar round about.
Then he took the fat, and the fat tail, and all the fat that was on the entrails, and the appendage of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and the right thigh. And out of the basket of unleavened bread which was before the Lord he took one unleavened cake, and one cake of bread with oil, and one wafer, and placed them on the fat and on the right thigh. And he put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and waved them as a wave offering before the Lord. Then Moses took them from their hands, and burned them on the altar with the burnt offering, as an ordination offering, a pleasing odor, and offering by fire to the Lord. (Lev. 8:18-28)
If this macabre scene is not enough, read on in Leviticus:
So Aaron drew near to the altar, and killed the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. And the sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar, and poured out the blood at the base of the altar. But the fat and the kidneys and the appendage of the liver from the sin offering he burned upon the altar, as the Lord commanded Moses. The flesh and the skin he burned with fire outside the camp. And he killed the burnt offering; and Aaron’s sons delivered to him the blood, and he threw it on the altar round about. And they delivered the burnt offering to him, piece by piece, and the head; and he burned them upon the altar. And he washed the entrails and the legs, and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar. (Lev. 9:8-14)
Further on it says:
And the fat of the ox and of the ram, the fat tail, and that which covers the entrails, and the kidneys, and the appendage of the liver; and they put the fat upon the breasts, and he burned the fat upon the altar, but the breast and the right thigh Aaron waved for a wave offering before the Lord, as Moses commanded. (Lev. 9:19-21)
"As the Lord commanded Moses …" And today? Infants are baptized, supposedly at Christ’s behest. Priests are set above the simple believers, supposedly under power of authority granted by Jesus, the Christ. One speaks of absolving sin, supposedly as charged by Christ; one ordains a "Holy Father," and claims that Jesus Himself had appointed him, and so on …
Jesus dissociated Himself from the tradition of sacrifice. Twice He quoted the prophet Hosea to the Pharisees: I desire mercy, and not sacrifice …(Mt. 9:13 and Mt. 12:7). Through Hosea, God had spoken in the Old Testament: For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings. (Hos. 6:6)
In This Is My Word we read:
8. …"I have come to put an end to the sacrifices and feasts of blood. If you do not cease to offer and consume the flesh and blood of animals, the wrath of God will not cease to come upon you, just as it came upon your ancestors in the wilderness, who indulged in the consumption of flesh and were filled with rottenness and consumed by pestilence. (p. 209)
On page 73 of that great divine revelation it says:
For the one who places his life in the sonship and daughtership of God will not kill – neither men nor animals.
Jesus spoke with a clarity that was more than clear against the instructions in the "Books of Moses." God spoke similarly through the prophet Jeremiah, as we have already seen.
In the statements of Jesus, the Christ of God, we perceive that the name of the prophet Moses was used for a cruel pagan cult. In the book This Is My Word, Christ Himself reveals:
"I have come to put an end to the sacrifices and feasts of blood" means that I have come to teach you the Gospel, the law of love, and to live it as an example for you, so that you may recognize that only the one who keeps the laws of God is rich in spiritual power in his inner being. People who possess the inner values will not lack in anything. For the one who is rich in his heart is with his neighbor, not against him, thus being for God, the life, which is the fullness. People who have inner values are also with the world of animals and plants and are not against God’s creations. The one who is against his neighbor will fight against him and kill him. And the one who is against his neighbor will not be for other forms of life – neither for the life of animals nor of plants or stones.
The one who is against the life in Me, the Christ, hungers and thirsts for success, wealth, power and prestige. He kills animals and consumes their flesh for his feasts and for the lusts of his palate. Thus, he demonstrates that he is far from God.
Animal sacrifices, too, are an abomination before God, the Eternal. He does not want animals to be sacrificed or consecrated to Him. God has given life to all forms of Being and thus to animals as well. Why should they be sacrificed to Him, since He Himself, the life, dwells in them?
However, if man were to sacrifice his human ego, his passions and cravings to Me, the Christ, and were to strive for and lead a life that is pleasing to God, that is, devoted to Him, this would contribute to the unity of all forms of life. God is the Spirit of love and freedom. Therefore, every human being should voluntarily sacrifice his ego. Only then will he become meek and humble of heart and will find his way to the great unity: God. This development of man towards Him is what God loves in His children.
And the one who devotes himself to the eternal Father-Mother-God, by transforming his humanness into the divine, will not slaughter animals or consume their flesh, nor will he kill any animal deliberately. Such people will also treat the plant world with selfless love, as this, too, is a gift of creation from God to His human children. The plants and the fruits of the field and forest give themselves willingly to man and want to serve him as nourishment and as remedy for his sick body.
The "wrath of God" comes from the pagan world of conceptions which was still very much alive in the Old Covenant. It was believed that the "gods" would take revenge on people. It would be good if the sinful person recognizes that it is he himself who has created the so-called "wrath of God." The "wrathful God" is the human ego, which takes revenge for what it itself has caused, for man will reap what he sows.
The words "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" also were and are wrongly interpreted. Man should not take revenge on his neighbor and give tit for tat. He is called upon to forgive his neighbor, to ask him for forgiveness and not to do the same or similar thing any longer. The one who does not follow this commandment subjects himself to the law of expiation. It reads, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Then he will reap – "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" – what he has sown. (pp. 209-211)
Already through the old prophets, God taught us the law of sowing and reaping, which lets us recognize the causes of our own fate. In Isaiah, for instance, we read: Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes. (Is. 5:18) In the Old Testament book of Wisdom it says: That they might learn that one is punished by the very things by which he sins. (Wis. 11:16) God does not punish and he does not give instructions that are sins. Our sin is the punishment that we have created for ourselves, our personal judgment.
Jesus wanted to do away with cruelty to people and animals. Today’s representatives of the church institutions, however, permit that cruelty to people and animals continue. Only the methods are different, however, even more cruel. In this way, they affirm what is happening. The efforts of few in the interests of animals are the exception that proves the rule.

The New Testament "fulfills" the Old
and "sheds light" on It.
Both Are the "true word of God."
Millions of Victims of the Church

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church,* No. 140,the Roman clergy has put down the following: … The Old Testament prepares for the New and the New Testament fulfills the Old; the two shed light on each other; both are the true Word of God.
The cruelty to animals continues; the slaughterhouses remain open. Today animals are being sacrificed, the carcasses hacked to pieces and cut up for the benefit of the human "gods" to satisfy their lust for culinary pleasures.
People as well were tortured and killed in cruel and bestial ways. And yesterday may become today.
What this "fulfillment" that has been prepared in the Old Testament looks like may be clearly seen by the fruits that the so-called Christian Churches have brought forth over the centuries.
A few days ago I came across a brochure, documentation by an initiative called "A Memorial to the Millions of Victims of the Church." The following is written there:
The Millions of Victims of the Church:
Inquisition: 13th-18th century, between 1 and 10 million dead and countless tortured, maltreated or terrorized people. (Der Spiegel, 6.1.1998 [The Mirror])
Crusades: 11th-13th century, up to 22 million dead, among them thousands of German Jews. (Hans Wollschläger, "Die bewaffneten Wallfahrten nach Jerusalem" [The Armed Pilgrimages to Jerusalem])
"Heathens": 9th-12th century. During the Middle Ages tens of thousands of Germanic or Slavic "heathens" are forcefully converted to "Christianity" or cruelly slaughtered. The Church gives its blessing or calls for "crusades" against the Slavs. (Karlheinz Deschner, Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, vol. 4–6 [Criminal History of Christendom]).
Jews: During the Middle Ages, between the 11th and 14th century there were numerous bloody pogroms with several thousands dead, the result of centuries of Church propaganda. The prominent Nazi Julius Streicher justified the holocaust during the Nuremberg trials by explicitly citing Martin Luther’s speeches of incitement against the Jews. (Friedrich Heer, "Gottes erste Liebe" [God’s First Love])
The conquest of America: During the first 150 years after the Spanish conquest, 100 million people died "in the name of God" – the "greatest genocide of all time." (Theologe Boff, Publik-Forum, 5.31.1991)
Cathari, Waldensians, Hussites, Baptists: Thousands with different beliefs die at the behest of the Church (including the Protestant-Lutheran Church).
"Witches:" 16th-18th centuries, between 400,000 and 1 million people, mostly women, die cruel deaths, roughly half of them in Germany. Luther has witches burned as well. The instructions, the "Witch-Hammer," are written by two German Dominican monks (cf. Hubertus Mynarek, "Die Neue Inquisition" [The New Inquisition]).
And how is it today? The roots of the Old Testament, mainly the "Books of Moses," according to the Catholic Catechism, "shed light" on the New Testament, that is, on our times. In the quoted brochure we read further:
Genocide in Croatia: In the middle of the 20th century, between 1941 and 1943, roughly 750,000 orthodox Serbs were murdered with the aid of Catholic clergymen and with the Vatican’s approval … The Vatican is informed about everything, but treats the bloody regime with considerable benevolence. The Catholic hierarchy, foremost the military vicar and archbishop Stepinac (beatified by the pope in 1998), gives the regime moral support to the very end. (Compare Deschner, "Ein Jahrhundert Heilsgeschichte," vol. 2, 1983 pp. 210 ff., [A Century of the History of Salvation?] and Vladimir Dedijer, "Jasenovac – das Jugoslavische Auschwitz und der Vatikan," 1988 [Jasenocvac – the Yugoslavian Auschwitz and the Vatican])
Child abuse by priests and ministers: The victims of child abuse often suffer for years and decades from the humiliation. Experts estimate that in the USA 2,000 of the 51,000 Catholic priests have been accused of sexual abuse over the last twenty years (Hanauer Anzeiger, 7. 13.1998 [Hanau Gazette]). That is approximately four percent, even without unreported cases. In Germany, Prof. Hubertus Mynarek also estimated a share of 3-5 percent of pedophile priests. (Akte [File] 97, 9/14/1999)

Martin Luther – Life and Teaching
in the Christian Spirit of Love for Neighbor?

Most of the murders and other crimes "in the name of God" mentioned above were committed by the Catholic Church. Does that mean that the Protestant-Lutheran Church should be regarded more positively?
How humane, freedom-loving and tolerant was the Church-founder Martin Luther? How did he regard his fellow men, and did he love his neighbor – which should be the highest commandment?
A man like Martin Luther is still highly regarded today. His Church follows in his footsteps, as was confirmed by Hermann von Loewenich (until 1999 the Lutheran bishop for Bavaria) on internet: We want to preserve the historic heritage of the Lutheran tradition as our cultural and spiritual homeland.
A Lutheran theologian compiled Luther’s demands in an extensive brochure, The Theologian, No. 3:
Luther called on the ruling princes to kill the rebellious peasants: Lunge, strike, and throttle whoever can do so. If you be killed in doing so, salvation to you: a more blessed death you will never attain. For you die in obedience to the divine word and commandment. (Wider die stürmenden Bauern, Weimarer Ausgabe der Lutherschriften [Against the Rebelling Farmers, Weimar Edition of the Luther Writings])
Luther demands the persecution of preachers who hold other beliefs: …and if they were to teach the pure gospel, yes even if they were like the angels and Gabriel from the heavens … If anyone wants to preach, let him prove his calling or order … If he refuses, may the superior command he be turned over to the proper master, called Master Hans [the executioner] …
Luther slanders and libels the Jewish population and demands their persecution:
If I could I would strike him [the Jewish citizen] down and pierce him with the sword in my rage.
… that their synagogues or schools be set on fire and may all that will not burn be heaped and covered with earth, that no person should ever see a rock or stone of it ever again. And this should be done for the glory of our Lord and of Christianity so that God may see that we are Christians.
… that also their houses be broken and destroyed …
… these worthless fellows and plunderers deserve no mercy and no pity.
… that they be forbidden to publicly praise God, to give thanks, to pray, to teach on pain of death … (Martin Luther, Von den Juden und ihren Lügen, Wittenberg 1543 [About the Jews and Their Lies])
Luther: It is such a desperate, viciously evil, vilely poisonous, thoroughly diabolical thing with these Jews, who for 1,400 years have been our plague, our pestilence, and all our misfortune, and still are today. In sum, we have righteous devils in them.
Luther even claimed that Moses, were he alive today, would be the first to set fire to the "Jewish houses and schools."
Luther further demanded that one should take away from the Jews their entire religious literature, put them under house arrest, take all their money and goods, and send them into forced labor.
Luther also called for war and the "murder" of Turkish opponents in war: ... and with joy raise the fist and strike in comfort, murder, rob, and do as much damage as ever they may …
Luther wanted the death of "usurers": ... so if one takes the highway robbers and murderers and breaks them on the wheel and beheads them, how much more should all usurers be broken on the wheel and bled and all misers be driven out, cursed and beheaded …
Luther demanded the death of unfaithful partners: Why are adulterers not killed? and wanted to torture prostitutes to death: If I were judge, I would want to have such a French poisonous whore broken on the wheel and bled.
Women with magical skills should be tortured and killed according to Luther: The sorceresses you should not permit to live … It is a just law that they be killed … If they will not convert, they will be handed over to the torturers.
Luther, about handicapped children: But when people tell about the devil-like children … so I say that they were either disfigured by the devil or that they are true devils. Many disabled persons who had been entrusted to Lutheran homes for the handicapped (for instance, in Neuendettelsau, Bavaria), were handed over to the state authorities in 1940/41, ultimately making reference to Luther’s teachings on the state (obedience toward authority). Those responsible knew that the handicapped would be killed.
In the end, Luther wanted to kill the pope: The pope is the devil; if I could kill the devil, why would I not do it?
The Lutheran Church also calls itself "Christian." But where is the Christian spirit, the spirit of love for God and love for one’s neighbor in what Luther said? His instructions and maxims were put into bloody practice by the people and the regional rulers, down to the despots of the Third Reich.
The one who gives such bestial and murderous instructions to his fellow man, which reach into the present day in different form, cannot be expected to have a sympathetic heart or compassion for animals. Whether it is war, the destruction of many people, animals and land, or whether it is animal experiments or genetic engineering, the ethics and morals of both denominations are hardly different. To put it clearly: both church institutions are un-Christian.

"What a Person Does to Another,
He Does to Himself."
What Does the Animal Feel in Its Situation?
The Animal, a Basic Commodity
and Consumer Good

Let us take another look at the testimony of the Old Testament. In Leviticus (supposedly the true word of God), where instructions are given also to the church officials of our day about which animals they may eat and which animals they should avoid, it says:
Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. (Lev. 11:3)
And three verses down, there is an appeal to hunters:
And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the swine, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you. (Lev. 11:6-8)
In addition to that last quote, it says in Leviticus 11:26–27:
Every animal which parts the hoof but is not cloven-footed or does not chew the cud is unclean to you; every one who touches them shall be unclean. And all that go on their paws, among the animals that go on all fours, are unclean to you; whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until evening …
Those who are obedient to the Churches should keep the instructions of the Old Testament, because, according to church teaching, it is the word of God. If the believers obeyed, the hares and swine at least would stand a chance of escaping without buckshot or bullets in their bodies.
To justify hunting it is often said that hunting is necessary to "decimate" the numbers of certain animals to prevent over-proliferation. But the Spirit of God has taught us: God has so arranged His creation, nature on the Earth, that it will take care of compensating and maintaining its balance. God has not given this task to the hunters!
To the fishermen and all those who tear from the sea what belongs to the sea, "God’s" instructions through "Moses" were the following:
But anything in the seas or the rivers that has not fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is an abomination to you. (Lev. 11:10)
Anyone who eats creatures of the sea, such as lobster and the like, becomes unclean. Readers may ask themselves whether they have become "unclean" already today.
Where will all those clergymen be after this life on Earth, all those who want to fulfill the Old Testament in the New Testament and who sit at beautifully laid tables, and eat of the carcasses of the hare, of wild pig and the like, or consume shellfish without fins and scales, and who then, in this state of uncleanness, perhaps perform sacred rites? Today they will no longer be stoned for sinning against the "holy" and the Holy One, God; but is the passed-down "word of God" still taken to be the truth, according to the statements of the clergy?
If there really were unclean animals that were an "abomination," then a justifiable question would be: Why did God create such animals, if He is absolute purity?
Jesus did not speak of any of this. Jesus loved all animals. Not only did He never hurt an animal, on the contrary: He was the great friend of all creatures. He spoke and acted for the animals.
Many people, on the other hand, do not think twice when animals are being treated cruelly or are killed. In This Is My Word on page 421, Christ explained that animals have feelings and sensations, similar to human beings:
As Jesus of Nazareth, I spoke to many people about the law of life as well as about the animals which, like human beings, feel pain, grief and joy. Just as man should not be against, but for his neighbor, so should he also be for the animals and bear responsibility for them, because they serve man.
I taught people again and again that the animals, too, are creatures of God, which man should not disregard, but should love. The one who beats and tortures them will one day experience the same or similar thing in his soul and on his body. For, what a man does to his fellow men and his fellow creatures, the animals, he does to himself.
Many people recognized their callousness and began to actualize My teachings. They repented and accepted the animals as their friends. And so, many a one understood My words and followed Me. (p. 421)
I repeat the words of Jesus, the Christ: "What a man does to his fellow human beings and his fellow creatures, the animals, he does to himself." Let us follow His words and apply what happens to the innocent animals to ourselves. In our thoughts, let us take their place and share their fate in feelings, images and thoughts.
For example, you could ask yourself in the place of an animal: Would you rather be killed or murdered? Anyone who seriously considers this question or situation with his feelings, where he is asked whether he would rather be killed or murdered, would surely not make a choice, because being killed or being murdered means to give up life, regardless of any difference.
And how would we react, if someone were to catch us, lock us in a cage and decide when we could get out from time to time?
Just imagine you were in the skin of a hamster, which by nature needs a lot of movement. See yourself locked up for some weeks in a tiny room. For movement you have only a wheel that turns quickly under your feet so that you remain in place, running and running and running, without moving forward. How long would you enjoy it? In this way you will quickly comprehend how the hamster must feel who must numbly run day after day in his cramped wheel.
Or feel yourself into the situation of a cow in a feeding pen. There you are, locked in, rubbing against your fellow sufferers, doped up with fattening feed full of chemicals, knowing that any second the butcher may come to slaughter you and cut your body up in pieces as a sacrificial meal, for example, for the corpulent clergy. You hear your brothers and sisters, the other cattle, mooing dully from time to time and you feel that they are moved by the same fear. But your impending fate is inevitable. You are in the hands of butchering man, at the mercy of his egomania, callousness and greed, including greed for profit.
Many people will walk over the dead bodies of people and animals, if they are not affected personally. For this reason, people presume it is permissible to kill people in certain cases, and of course much more so with animals. Who has the right to deliberately take the life of his neighbor, or of the animal? Who has created the human soul, which is immortal? Who gave it breath? And who has given the animals breath and thus life? Not man, but God, the Eternal, the Creator-Spirit of infinity. God does not take the life of man or of animals, for God is the giver. And God does not coerce. He never uses violence. He never influences anyone against their will. He is the freedom and He grants freedom. Only man, who gave life neither to the human soul nor to the animals, kills the house of the soul, the body, and kills the animal. Who gave man permission? Jesus did not speak of this!
Anyone who distinguishes between "killing" and "murder" is in my opinion a paranoiac who does not value the life of others according to the All-law, which is life, and who therefore forfeits his own life. For, what a person does to another, he does to himself.
The same applies when animals are kept in cages. God gave animals nature as their habitat, in which they may move freely according to their kind, just as the spiritual forms of animals do in the eternal Being. He did not create cages for His creatures. Only man presumes to cage animals and to have them pass their days in the most cramped spaces.
Jesus, the Christ, spoke in the following sense: So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them! (Mt. 7:12) We can also understand Jesus’ statement in the following way: Do not do unto others what you do not want them to do unto you. Does this apply only to other humans, or does it apply also to animals, given Jesus’ love for animals?
God gave to people and animals the whole Earth and thus He gave them freedom. But people divide this world into lots. Everyone seeks – legally or illegally – to gain the largest piece. That land then is "his property." It is what "belongs to him," with everything that lives on and in the land. But everything that we acquire on Earth is illusion, a deception, for death will take from us what we have taken from the Earth.
For many human beings, animals are only objects that may be bought or sold, used or also consumed – like items from the store. They cram the animals into the world of their conceptions, into cramped pens, where they also waste away their existence.
Anyone who has learned to feel into people senses that animals, too, have feelings and sensations, similar to us human beings. They feel joy, sorrow and pain. An old Native American saying may help us learn to understand the animals. It says: Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins. With regard to animals, we may say: Before you capture animals and abuse them for your purposes and torment them, forcing upon them confining and unnatural living conditions, try it on yourself first. Let yourself be forced into the hamster’s wheel as mentioned above, and you will feel what your little second neighbor must be going through. The one who wants to gain a living insight into the plight of animals could put himself in the role of a fattened calf, or of a chicken on a chicken farm, or of a baby seal that is lying comfortably in the sun when the men come with clubs in their hands, wanting to skin it for its fur. Perhaps you will also imagine what the mother seal must feel when she returns from fishing and finds instead of her baby a raw lump of meat …

The God of the Times.
"Fulfillment" of the Old Testament in Our Time:
Sexual Child Abuse by Priests.
In the Footsteps of the Nazarene
or in Those of the Church Authorities?

Jesus, the Christ, is the truth. He said: I and the Father are one. (Jn. 10:30) Let us consider again the following words of Jesus: Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Mt. 5:17) In many cases Jesus did not fulfill what the "God" of the Old Testament had commanded through the prophet Moses. Jesus rarely and only indirectly referred to the "God" of the "Books of Moses." Rather He said: You have heard that it is written … but I tell you … Or: You have heard that it was said to the ancients … but I tell you … He who has ears to hear, listen: Jesus rarely mentions the "God" of the "Books of Moses."
Jesus thus sought to dissociate Himself from that mistaken concept of God, from that false image of God. He spoke of the "Father in heaven," of His Father, of "God, your Father." He spoke from the truth that is the eternal reality, the law of the heavens.
One might object that what was said at that time applied to the people then, and that it is no longer valid today, that today it would be entirely different. This raises the question: Were the people worse back then, did they have a more wicked character than people do today? Surely we need not research what people were like back then. Everyone who still has a spark of conscience knows without analysis and based on the facts on page 32 ff. that people today are worse by far than people were back then. That this is true also in regard to their brothers and sisters in nature, the animals, is evidenced by the fate of animals in nature and in the laboratories of science, etc.
Many are of the opinion that they believe in God. Especially those who display their faith in churches and official functions, presume to act like super-gods who not only tolerate but condone that living animals are subjected to the most cruel and brutal experiments that put the practices in the "Books of Moses" in the shade. The Roman clergy, of course, does not mention the shade. They proclaim: "The Old Testament prepares for the New and the New Testament fulfills the Old; the two shed light on each other …" (Catholic Catechism No. 140) For example, do the burning pyres of the Middle Ages shed the light of the Old Testament on the New? On the other hand, do the bloody practices of the Middle Ages and the serious alterations that were done during the past 2000 years to the teachings of Jesus, the Christ, shed light on what happened to the word and the message of God in the Old Testament? It could be worth it to pursue this question … what forces, also called powers, might this be today? If it cannot be God – for He is the law and this law is love, kindness, peace and the good of everyone and everything – then who is it?
Just now I am reading how the Old Testament finds fulfillment in the New Testament, but with different characteristics, tailored to our present times. It is the transcript of a television program that was aired on Sept. 2, 1999 on German television (Auslandsjournal, [Foreign Journal] ZDF), under the title "Child Abuse in Ireland." Here are some excerpts:
A scandal is shaking Ireland. Its focal point is the Catholic Church, the pillar of Irish society. Over the course of many years, the state has entrusted children to a Catholic Order. Today public indignation is great on the island because a documentary film shows what no one wanted to believe at first: abuse instead of care, violence instead of love. Not single cases, but apparently hundreds of children have lived through hell on Earth in the custody of the Church. Now the pact of silence is being broken, and the truth is brought to light.
At age three, John Prior is assigned to a home by the state because his parents supposedly were neglectful in their care of him. The home is run by the Catholic Order of Christian Brothers. Here, the children are supposedly raised to believe in God.
John, who is 54 years old today, tells his story: For seven years he was sexually abused by two Brothers of the Order and by a Catholic priest.
The worst beating that I ever received was when I told a nurse that I had been sexually abused by a Brother. I was nine and a half or ten. She first beat me and then she told the Brother. He then took me away and then two of the Brothers beat and beat and beat me. I had wounds everywhere …
We had group showers. Twenty boys had to get in there. The Brother (of the Order) got undressed … and he abused some boys in front of the eyes of others and he forced them to touch each other. He once raped me, he threw me on his bed and took me, tearing me open. I was bleeding so badly that the nurse used iodine and I screamed with pain.
In March 1998 the Brothers of the Order publicly apologized for the child abuse in the school homes. Together with other Orders they set up a support telephone line for the victims. There were more than 8,000 calls and the Church referred 600 victims to therapists.
1999: A documentary accuses the state and proves that the authorities knew for years about the child abuse in the church schools and that they nevertheless continued to finance them. As a result, the government established a fact-finding committee, promised to change the law, and provided $5 million for the victims’ therapy.
Today, John is in psychotherapy. He suffers from paranoia, cannot sleep, trusts no one. Almost all his relationships have failed, and he has never accomplished anything professionally.
Therapist: John suffers unceasingly; he has inferiority complexes; he feels useless; he has no self-confidence …
John is not a singular case. Thousands of children were placed in the care of Catholic foster homes … John tells about the fate of his best friend, Joseph:
He had a long leather belt and he hit Joseph with it on both shoulders and on the head. Joseph fell from his chair and the Brother struck every part of his body, and then kicked him with those heavy army boots that the Brothers wore to work in the fields. And he kicked him and kicked him and kicked him, until Joseph could no longer move. Joseph had lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital. There he died. This was generally known. They said here that he had died of leukemia, but he did not die of leukemia.
Narrator: Since then, John no longer believes in God.
This report speaks for itself …
In a recent edition of "Kirche Intern" [Inside the Church, Austria] the following appeared under the heading "Sexual Abuse. Therapy in the Monastery:"
More and more often priests and members of Orders are being suspected of taking part in sexual abuse. Reason enough for the abbot of monastery G., in J.A., to take action. Still this year, he wants to establish a therapy center in the monastery P. for the clergy, members of Orders and pastoral workers.
It might be advisable to read what the "God of Moses" said about such and similar things. If this old law, which can look back on a long tradition and which is esteemed by the Church as a part of the "Holy Scriptures" were to be applied, there would very quickly be fewer people around.
The transgressions of man today are not only directed against individuals, against people and animals, but it is a global strategy against people and animals. He is even convinced that he should improve on God’s creation. Cruel and domineering people interfere in manifold and the most brutal ways and means in the life of animals – and the world of plants and minerals is not spared either. Others, the great mass of people, leave the tormented creatures to their fate without protest, being deaf and blind in their egotism and dull indifference. In a similar fashion, people treat each other.
The caste of priests today has put together their own God, just as during the time of Moses. Only the "God" of today does not concur with either the "God" of the Old Testament or with the teachings of Jesus. Church dignitaries at all times adapted their god or their gods to their times – that is, to their conceptions, needs and aims. The true God, on the other hand, is not the Church spirit-of-the-times "God," but the unchanging God whom Jesus taught us. The Church spirit-of-the-times "God" is inconstant and unreliable. It does not help to formulate statements in absolute terms, pretending stability. Untruth is not of eternal duration, even if the cracks and holes in the structure of untruth may be patched for a while by claiming these are "the mysteries of God." The light of truth will bring everything to light.
Why do church dignitaries not abide by their own statements? If they would let the Old Testament be brought to fulfillment in all details in the New Testament, they themselves would be the first that the "God" in the "Books of Moses" would have killed.
The people of today, especially church believers, walk in the footsteps of church authorities, who proclaim a changing God who is subject to the changing spirit-of-the-times, so that their neck will not be caught in the noose of the Old Testament – a noose that the "God" of the "Books of Moses" would have long since put around their necks and pulled tight. And so, they need their spirit-of-the-times, whom they call "God."
This "God" is flexible and adapts to the requirements of those currently in command, so that there is little difficulty in presenting him to the believers, so that in their lethargy, egocentricity and dissipation they will be disturbed as little as possible. This way, the believers are happy to remain in the folds of this comfortable Church, which takes the burden of many a decision of conscience away and provides an alibi for atrocities of many kinds.
The true eternal One is absolute. He is the all-wise law of the cosmos, which is love. I repeat, God, the love, does not punish or discipline. He does not condemn, kill, or murder. God will not hand over people or animals to other people. Jesus taught us this. He lived the law of His Father and is the example by which to live.
If we learn to understand the depth of His teaching and His statement: Follow me! (Mt. 4:19), then we will know why Jesus urged us to follow in His steps. Did Jesus want to tell us, among other things, that we should not walk in the footsteps of the priest caste which teaches a God of the times, a spirit-of-the-times God that unavoidably leads people into destruction – something which our world today is showing us? The Seer of Patmos recognized this, because we can read in the revelation of John: Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues … (Rev. 18:4)
Again let it be clearly and unmistakably said: Jesus spoke against the brutal, bestial slaughter of animals and the killing and murder of people. We should keep asking questions of ourselves until we have received enlightenment and have recognized deep within us why Jesus proclaimed a God who is different from the "God" of the "Books of Moses" and from the "God" of today’s church officials. Or do we believe in several gods of differing quality? In that case, it is the personal philosophy of each individual, who does not require a church authority for this – unless the individual lacks imagination in this respect: then the Church is the right place for him as a "religious" member. But if the one God should be changeable, then woe unto the people who have turned from the state Church of pagan rituals!
We should consider carefully, and wisely weigh everything! God gave not only people a heart – the stirrings of which are not so reliable if we have lost our conscience – but also a mind. We are well advised to make use of it and to reawaken our perhaps long-unused ability for independent thinking.
To come to clarity, a good approach is to question oneself – or God in deep prayer. For: Whoever asks sincerely may receive guidance.
After 2000 years it is time that those people who believe in Jesus and who want to follow Him make a decision: to either follow in the steps of Jesus, the Christ, and to thus apply His teaching; or to follow in the steps of today’s church authorities, who in no way fall short of the caste of priests in Moses’ times.

"Kill" or "Murder?" Jesus Fulfilled the Law
and Deepened the Teaching

Even though the adversary of God managed to fundamentally falsify the words of the prophet Moses, the words of the Ten Commandments – which are an excerpt of the eternal and absolute law of the heavens – have remained mostly untouched down to our time.
The fifth commandment reads and has always read: You shall not kill.
But, in a new 1985 unity translation of the German New Jerusalem Bible it says: You shall not murder. This version should be attributed to the God of the spirit-of-the-times. It represents an attenuation of the encompassing statement "You shall not kill." In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus even said: You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire. (Mt. 5:21-22)
Jesus did not qualify the absolute statement "You shall not kill." He did not restrict its meaning to specific cases: on the contrary, Jesus deepened it. He taught that against-the-neighbor not only lies in the accomplished act of killing, but is already contained in hurtful or pejorative words, and the feelings and sensations that lie in them. He called our attention to the fact that every fine stirring of rejection of neighbor, perhaps of our animal brothers and sisters, our second neighbors, as well, is a sin before God. In this way, Jesus called on us to sensitize our conscience.
And Jesus explicitly spoke of "killing," not "murder."
Jeremiah had already told the people about the falsification of "the scriptures." In Jeremiah 8:8 he spoke of "the false pen of the scribes" who have made the law of the Lord "into a lie."
Whose "false pen" has now again falsified the word of God through Moses? Whom do those serve who would do such a thing? What should be justified by the statement "You shall not murder?" Is this statement again meant to appease the conscience of people, so that they will not react when injustice is being done?
The un-spirit of the Old Testament prepared the way and demonstrated the method; and in the New Testament the falsifications were successfully carried through until today, using a clear method, plan and purpose. Under the eyes of many millions of people gifted with a thinking mind – abracadabra! – white turns into black. Are these the miracles of today?
Anyone indifferent to the radical divergence between these two statements, killing and murder, sits on two chairs and tries to serve two masters: the spirit of the cruel "God" of the "Books of Moses," and thus the institutional churches, and on the other hand a little bit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught the God of merciful love.
Jesus said in the following sense: My Father and I are one. Where two are one, they speak the same language. May the one who has ears to hear, listen!
What did Jesus teach in His Sermon on the Mount? Anyone who simply gets angry with his neighbor will be liable to the court. And whoever insults another will be liable to the council. (Mt. 5-22) May the one who has ears to hear, listen! And the one who has a conscience will follow Jesus, the Christ, and will do what is written in the Revelation of John: Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues … (Rev. 18:4)

Instructions on Violence and War in the
Old Testament – Jesus: "Love your enemies."
Jesus Rebukes the Hypocrisy
of the Scribes and Pharisees

Jesus did not soothe our conscience. Nor did he call on us to lull our conscience with tricks and ruses and hair-splitting formulations, and silence it. Only those who are against God do this, those who work against Him, and who have already turned the word of Moses into its opposite. Of this, there is another example:
In the second Book of Moses, Exodus, we read: Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death. (Ex. 21:12) Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death. Whoever steals a man, whether he sells him or is found in possession of him, shall be put to death. (Ex. 21:15-17)
In Exodus 21:24 we continue: ... eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
Many times this was taken literally and was used to justify all sorts of acts of vengeance.
Jesus did not speak such in His Sermon on the Mount. There it says: You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you. (Mt. 5:38-42)
The words of Jesus are thus very different from those of the "God" of the "Books of Moses." Whoever wants to be an upright Christian, ought to make the decision: Either for God through Jesus, the Christ, or for the god of the institutional churches, because one cannot serve two masters. At some point the false god will cause us to fall. Our indifferent, callous society is the best proof of this.
In the fifth Book of Moses, Deuteronomy, we can read among other things about retribution:
Your eye shall not pity; it shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. (Dt.19:21)
War and the warriors. When you go forth to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them; for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies. Let not your heart be faint! Do not fear, or tremble, or be in dread of them; for the Lord your God is he that goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.’ (Dt. 20:1-4)
Today it is the same, as if Jesus, the Christ, had not been on Earth in the meantime. Today’s priests bless war and its weapons in the belief that those who receive the blessing will have God on their side against the "enemies."
In the same book of Moses, we continue to read:
Conquering the cities: When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. But if it makes not peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.
And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand you shall put all its males to the sword, but the women and the little ones, the cattle, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as booty for yourselves; and you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you.
Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here. But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes. (Dt. 20:10-16)
In the Middle Ages, the crusaders waded through the blood of those whom they had conquered in the name of the cross. Between 1941 and 1943 in Croatia it was not much different. The Church does make it true: The Old Testament "sheds light" on the New Testament – but not with the light of God, which Christ proclaimed and is again proclaiming today!
God is peace. Christ came in Jesus to bring peace to all human beings. He will return – in spirit – as the Prince of Peace, that is certain.
Jesus spoke in His Sermon on the Mount about loving one’s enemies. In Matthew we read:
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt. 5:43-48)
Again we recognize: Jesus said, You have heard … He did not say "You have heard from God through Moses," and He did not say "You have heard from the prophet Moses." He said: You have heard …
Jesus spoke of God’s love and about reconciliation – the so-called "God" through Moses spoke of destruction, plunder and killing.
In Leviticus, the third Book of Moses, things are summed up as follows:
And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. And I will have regard for you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and will confirm my covenant with you. ( Lev. 26:7-9)
But Jesus said: All those who take the sword will perish by the sword. (Mt. 26:52)
Moses supposedly ordained priests at God’s bidding. The ceremony began with the usual sacrifice of a ram. Jesus taught just the opposite with regard to priests. In the gospel of Matthew He put it very clearly: But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. (Mt. 23:8)
In Matthew 23, Jesus rebuked the scribes and pharisees for their hypocrisy:
Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples, The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice.
They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues, and salutations in the market places, and being called rabbi by men. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called masters, for you have one master, the Christ. He who is greatest among you shall be your servant; whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, not allow those who would enter to go in.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Woe to you, blind guides who say, ‘If any one swears by the temple, it is nothing; but if any one swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If any one swears by the altar, it is nothing; but if any one swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; and he who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it; and he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected